Spring 2024 Banpen small trees

I had always avoided Banpen, to me,  it was only a village to pass through on the way to Lao Man E. I had visited before, back in 2010. At that time, only Lao Banzhang was popular, and it's only 3 km away from Banpen. At that time, during the gold rush era, Lao Banzhang already commanded a much higher price than the surrounding villages, and the forgery was unhindered.

Who cared? You always got an influx of new buyers willing to pay a lot for good leaves, and inexperienced in the trade. They would head straight to Lao Banzhang in search of the best tea. As a result, the good tea from the satellite villages was bought by the Lao Banzhang farmers to complement their harvest, it was mislabeled and sold to happy customers who would come again. 

This is why, despite having one of the best terroirs in Yunnan, I avoided the area, until covid came...

As you know, the economy of China has been struggling these last couple of years, and the Pu-erh tea industry can feel it. The wealthy people save on luxuries, they probably have truckloads of tea at home anyway. 

The satellite villages suffer the most from this dynamic. They used to supply the fake-still-good tea. Now that a lot of buyers don't show up, the famous villages such as Lao Banzhang can still sell their own harvest, but they don't need that much extra tea anymore. 

The satellite villages to Lao Banzhang: Banpen, Ba Ka Noy and Xin Banzhang, suddenly find themselves short of customers. They are now willing to sell the good stuff in their own village at a reasonable price, based on quality, and not on the Lao Banzhang price. 

Back in 2010, I had spent the night in Banpen. I went to Lao Banzhang with a friend from Jingmai, we expected to be invited to a farmer's house there, but it turned up we didn't look like serious buyers. With the huge number of visitors there, the traditional Yunnan hospitality was compromised, and I totally understand that. 

Without a vehicle, and as night was falling, our only option was to walk. Banpen was only 3km away. When we arrived there, we met a friendly man from Anhui. He had just set up a factory in the village, it was brand new and quite fancy for the time. We spent the evening drinking tea and slept in the warm drying house, surrounded by tea drying on flat bamboo baskets. On the next day we left, and somehow, we didn't keep in touch. Such a serendipitous encounters happen a lot during the tea trips, we even get used to it. 

Back to September 2024, I am on a road trip with Ai Ni Pa, the guide who manages our tea tours. On the way from Hekai to Lao Man E, as we crossed through Banpen, I felt like I would like to stop and meet people there. I hadn't tried a good Banpen in a while. If our visitors on the tours wanted to stop there, we'd at least have a contact. 

I drive in the tiny village roads for a couple of minutes, it's gotten much bigger now! I'm happy to see the farmers being so successful. I see a random, decent-looking tea factory, I stop the car and we walk in. The tea boss greets us, with an accent quite foreign to this region. We sit at the tea table and think his way of speaking is familiar, so I ask him where he's from. He said Anhui, while staring at me for longer than usual. After a five second pause, we are both filled with joy. It was the same guy who hosted me fourteen years ago!

During all that time, Peng Xia kept running his tea factory in the village. He sells mainly small tree tea to large factories. We had a great tea session, talking about the evolution of the area and tea business. The tea we had was very well processed, and it is hard to believe it comes from natural tea gardens. Its intensity is a testimony to how good the soil is in that place. 

We opted for the spring tea, he only had 30kg left, we bought it all. We're very happy to be offering this tea here, it carries a personal significance to me.

The natural tea gardens, planted in the 1990s, grow at 1700-1800m, they are characteristic of the menghai taste, and quite close to Lao Banzhang tea in overall profile. The soup feels medium-thick, the upfront bitterness quickly leaves a sweet coating in the mouth, and the fragrance is muted and leathery, similar to Bulang Shan tea. You'll love this one for its balance, it's just a great Pu-erh tea overall.